Never Earthly to Begin With
by TheOtherOswald
Summary: Susan Campbell could never have been described as Earthly, but that didn't stop her from loving it. Unfortunately, one thing that Earth didn't have that she would have enjoyed was reliable Time Travel. However, with the universe to explore, she's bound to run into who she's looking for eventually. The universe is only so infinite.
1. Chapter 1

**I love Susan and she's been slept on by New Who, so I'm fixing it. As with all time lord regenerations from what we can tell, while she is essentially the same, there are slight differences to her personality and interests. She is still the Susan Foreman/Campbell we all know and love, just... new.**

**Doctor Who is owned by BBC and... whoever the writer was at this point. It is not mine and I do not make money off of this. I get my transcripts from Forever Dreaming (**** . ?f=53). They are not my work.**

**Thank you all for reading. 3**

* * *

Susan woke up to the feeling of another quake. While this wasn't an _uncommon_ phenomenon, it certainly wasn't appreciated. She had been up late last night translating and desperately needed the sleep. She heard her comm crackling and grabbed it. Before Zach - as that was surely who it was - could even get a word in edgewise, she called out, "I'm fine. Woke me up, but no damage to me or my area as far as I can tell."

The man gave a weak laugh at her snippy (but expected) response. "Well, if you're up already, would you care to come down to the control room. There's something here you may want to see."

She sighed, hoisting herself back up, "Fine, but if you all are simply gonna have me see how long I can stare into that stupid thing, you're all gonna be sorely disappointed."

The shut off her comm to the sound of Zach's laughter and stood. She ran a hand through her untamable, firey hair, pulled her suspenders back onto her shoulders, affixed her goggles on her face (because like it or not, she was terribly sighted this time around), grabbed her notebook, and head out.

The walk to the control room was quick. Inside, she saw - oddly enough - two people. They were talking with Zach and Ida about the craziness of the planet.

"That's the black hole officially designated K-three-seven Gen five," Zach said.

"In the scriptures of the Falltino, this planet is called Kroptor. The-"

"Bitter Pill." Susan walked up to the group, grinning at Ida. "Sorry to interrupt, but this _is_ sort of my specialty." She glances at the two newcomers. "As I was saying, it's called the Bitter Pill. The black hole was supposedly a mighty demon who was tricked into eating the planet, but it spit it back out because it was poison. So, here it remains." She stuck a hand out. "Susan Campbell, Resident Historian and Chief Anthropologist. I work with Toby."

The female of the duo - a pretty blonde - smiled and took her hand. "The Bitter Pill. I like that. And, Rose Tyler. Pleasure."

The man, however, seemed too caught up in his thoughts for small talk. He stared at the hologram. "We are so far out. Lost in the drifts of the universe, how did you even get here?"

"We flew in. You see," Zach changed the hologram, "This planet's generating a gravity field. We don't know how, we've no idea, but… it's kept constant balance against the black hole. And the field extends out there. As a funnel. A distinct… gravity funnel, reaching out into clear space. That was our way in."

Rose was grinning. "You flew down that thing? Like a rollercoaster."

"That's _one way_ to put it," Susan griped.

"By rights, the ship should've been torn apart. We lost the Captain… which is what put me in charge."

Susan placed a hand on his shoulder as Ida said, "You're doing a good job."

"Yeah, well, needs must."

"But," Danny piped up, "if that gravity funnel closes, there's no way out."

Susan rolled her eyes. "You didn't need to bring it up again, Dan."

Scooti, meanwhile, commented, "We had fun speculating about that."

"Oh, yeah, that's the word." Danny swung at Scooti's head with the scroll he held. "'_Fun'_."

Susan moved to the side to stand next to Danny as the new man (who's name she has still yet to learn) started talking science. She, of course, understood it, but - in her mind at least - it was just a headache and an existential crisis waiting to happen.

She watches with interest as Rose receives her drink from one of the Ood (Ood seven Gamma sixty seven) and attempts to make conversation. She even asked for their name. It was something she had never seen a human outside of the Friends of the Ood do. It was because of this that she perked up a little when the girl approached Danny.

"Uhm, what are they called?" Rose gestured towards the Ood.

Danny looked shocked. "Oh, come on. Where've you been living? Everyone's got one!"

He quickly got an elbow to the side and a sharp, "Watch it, Danny." Susan then looked at Rose. "They're called the Ood."

"The '_Ood'_?"

Susan laughed. "Yes, the Ood."

"Well, that's… _ood_."

"Very ood," Danny piped up, "but handy. They work the mine shafts. All the drilling and stuff. Supervision, and maintenance! They're born for it. Basic slave race."

Susan bit her cheek and clenched her fist at that assessment, but didn't say anything. She knew it wouldn't make a difference. The use of Ood labor and the view of the Ood as tools was something so ingrained into this society, there was very little that a less than four-hundered-year-old Time Lord without a TARDIS could do about it.

Luckily for her, it seemed that she didn't need to do anything this time.

"You've got slaves?" Rose looked, to put it simply, _pissed_.

"Don't start, she's like one of that lot. Friends of the Ood," Scooti called from the side.

"Well maybe I am, yeah. Since when do humans need slaves?"

"But the Ood offer themselves," Danny retorted. "If you don't give them orders, they just pine away and die."

As an Ood walked towards her, Rose frowned. "Seriously? You like being ordered around?"

Susan's hearts wept as it responded, "We have nothing else in life."

"Yeah, well, I used to think like that. A long time ago."

Susan offered her a smile just as Rose's companion finished his calculations.

"There we go. D'you see? To generate that gravity field, and the funnel, you'd need a power source with an inverted self-extrapolating reflex of six to the power of six every six seconds."

Susan murmured the numbers to herself as the man recited them. She had done the math way back when they had first arrived. She knew it was impossible, just as much as he clearly did. Yet, here it was.

"That's a lot of sixes," Rose commented.

"And it's impossible."

While Zach let out a surprised, "It took us two years to work that out," which wasn't _entirely_ true, Susan simply retorted, "According to Sherlock Holmes, the fact that we're standing here means you're wrong."

She got an odd look from the man, but he responded cockily to Zach. "I'm very good."

"But," Ida butted in, "that's why we're here. This power source is ten miles below through solid rock. Point Zero. We're drilling down to try and find it."

The crew began to grow excited at the concept of it. "It's giving off readings of over ninety stats on the Blazen Scale."

"We could revolutionize modern science."

"We could use it to fuel the Empire."

Then, the man spoke up. "Or start a war."

Toby scoffed. "Oh, don't start. You sound just like Campbell."

The man glanced at her, an eyebrow cocked. She just shrugged and crossed her arms in front of her, trying to pass it off as a casual motion than her holding herself. "All evidence says that it was _placed_ there. No one puts something in a place like this without reason."

The man nodded.

"Whatever it is down there is not a natural phenomenon. And this, er, planet once supported life. Eons ago, before the human race had even learned to walk."

The man perked up. "I saw that lettering written on the wall. Did you do that?"

Toby nodded. "I copied it from fragments we found on earth by the drilling, but I can't translate it. That has always been Susan's thing."

She blushed and rubbed at the back of her neck. "I'm no linguist, so it's not that quick going, but I have more than nothing."

The man nodded and grinned at her. "I'd love to take a look at it, if I could. Maybe I could help. I don't recognize it, but maybe with a basis to work off of"

"I'll take it if you think you can help."

"There was some form of civilization,": Toby added. "They buried something. Now it's reaching out. Calling us in."

The man grinned. "And you came."

"Well, how could we not?" Ida asked.

The man's grin was fond as he spoke. "So, when it comes right down to it, why did you come here? Why did you do that? Why? I'll tell you why. Because it was there. Brilliant. Excuse me, ah, Zach, wasn't it?"

He nodded. "That's me."

"Just stand there, 'cos I'm gonna hug you. Is that alright?"

Susan gave the man an odd look - much like the rest of the crew. There had been no real prompt for the hug, but still, the man was asking for it.

"I s'pose so."

The man walked forward, arms open. "Here we go. Coming in." Then, he clutched the Captain close to him, grinning like a child on Christmas. "Ahh, human beings, you are amazing. Ha! Thank you."

As Susan frowned, the other crew members and Rose grinned. The man released Zach and Susan instinctively edged just a bit closer to the new man. She had to hold herself back from probing into his mind. Had they been anywhere else, she likely would have, but with all the Ood around, she doubted she could tolerate any more of their soulful, lost songs. Still, his comment about 'humans' was enough to keep her on edge.

"But apart from that, you're completely mad. You should pack your bags and get back in that ship and fly for your lives."

"You can talk," Ida piped up. "And how the hell did you get here?"

"Oh, I've got this, uhm… this… it's hard to explain, it just sort of appears."

Rose spoke up. "We can show you, we parked down the corridor from, uhm… oh, what's it called? Uh, Habitation Area…"

"Three," the man supplied.

"Three. Three."

Zach frowned, and so did others as they caught onto what was happening. "Do you mean storage six?"

"Uh, it was a bit of a cupboard, yeah. Storage six, but you said…" It was painful to watch the horror dawn on him. "You said… You said storage five through eight."

Then, he ran down the hall, frantic. Rose followed after him, looking confused. She was shouting, "What is it? What's wrong?"

The others milled around awkwardly. They all couldn't help but feel bad. He may have been technically a trespasser, but now he was a forced crew member. It wasn't fun to get stranded places. She knew that all too well.

Susan walked over to Zach and placed a hand on his shoulder. "I'm gonna go get some more work done. I think I'm onto something. Remind him that if he wants to help, now that he's stuck here, that he can feel free to stop by the office."

Zach placed his hand over hers and squeezed. The young human knew enough about her past to know why she was taking her leave. "I'll do that. Try not to work yourself _too_ hard. I know that you haven't been sleeping much these days."

Her confusion must have been visible, because he laughed. "You forget to dim the office lights."

She smiled. "Good to know. I'll make sure to do that next time."

They both laughed and she stepped away. She got a few smiles from her crewmates as she left the room, the computer announcing her departure.

* * *

She peeked her head into the office. "Toby? You in here?"

When there was no response, she walked fully into the room and glanced around. If she didn't have her Time Lord memory, she might not have noticed the missing scroll from the collection on the main desk.

That, along with the ever nearer power source, meant that he had likely retired to his room for the day, to puzzle over the older scroll until he fell asleep. She made a note to stop by his room that evening to drag him into his actual bed in an attempt to save his back.

She chuckled and made her way to the desk. She pulled out her notebook, one of the old scrolls, and went back to work.

The scrolls were all over the place, at best. The pictures made very little sense and she _still_ didn't understand the language. With no understanding of the syntax or vocabulary of the language, it was impossible to decipher what it could possibly mean.

With her light humming softly, she let herself fall into a trance-like state as she tried to work through one of the hardest puzzles of her life.

* * *

She had been working for a few hours when her comm buzzed to life. It was Zach again. "Hey, we've got the Scarlet System out the window if you'd like to head down."

She rubbed at her eyes, squinting still from staring at text for hours. "Yeah… Yeah, I'll be right there."

She pulled a bit of 'food' from a small chest she kept under her bed and made her way down to the canteen. By the time she was finished with her food, she stepped into the large room as the window opened and the room was bathed in a soft red light.

She pinpointed it as she joined Ida and Rose and her friend in the center of the room. She stood beside Rose and pointed out into space. The girl jumped as Susan's hand entered her peripheral vision and the Time Lord chuckled. "There. On the edge."

There was a red light, a cloud of dust, being pulled into the black hole. It was beautiful if you didn't think about the fact that it was once an entire solar system.

"That red cloud… that used to be the Scarlet System. Home to the Peluchi, a mighty civilisation spanning a billion years… _disappearing_." Her voice was heavy with emotion. As she stared at the bright red light, she couldn't help but think of beautiful fields of red grass, of two brilliant suns shining in the sky, reflecting off the silver leaves. "_Forever_. Their planets and suns consumed."

Ida stepped forward on the other side of the group, staring in fascination. "Ladies and gentlemen… We have witnessed its passing."

Ida went to close it, as Susan pulled her arms around her and lowered her head, but the man stopped her. "Er, no, could you leave it open? ...just for a bit. I won't go mad, I promise."

"How would you know?" Ida asked, but she left it open. "Scooti, check the lock down. Jefferson, sign off the airlock seals for me."

As she gave the orders, the crew members went off to do as told. The human woman stopped next to Susan and squeezed her arm. "You'll be alright?"

Susan nodded. "Yeah, I'll be fine. Fascinating sight, just… _sad_, is all."

Ida nodded and left her. She took a few moments to calm herself as the two new people talked quietly among themselves.

As she got a glance at the time, she figured it was as good a time as any to get Toby into bed properly. She gave the two a wave and took her leave.

* * *

As she stepped into the bedroom, she felt something off immediately. For one, it was empty. Sure, things had gone a bit crazy that day, but it wasn't like Toby to be off doing something late at night other than obsessively studying. The other thing was the file places on his desk. She walked over to it and picked it up.

"An expenditure…? Wasn't Scooti giving these out…?"

She winced as her own voice seemed to cause a spike of pain. '_Oh, great,'_ she thought. '_A headache. Just what I need.'_

She rubbed at her temples and pulled her goggles down around her neck. This was what she got for spending so long staring at those scrolls, she supposed.

She sighed and placed the file back down, but just as she was making to leave the room to find Toby, the entire base shook. She was almost thrown to the ground as the computer screeched in its terrible, electronic voice, "Emergency hull breach. Emergency hull breach."

Her comm flared to life with Zach's voice. "Everyone, evacuate 11 to 13, we've got a breach!" Her eyes went wide as she bolted from the room and towards safety. "The base is open. Repeat: the base is open."

As she was running, she barely thought when she saw Toby, simply grabbing him by his sleeve and dragging him along with her. They found Jefferson and let themselves be led away to where everyone else seemed to have been gathering together. As Toby stumbled through the threshold, she didn't let go quickly enough and found herself tumbling to the ground.

As the computer relayed status reports, the new man was frantic. He raced over to them. "Everyone alright? What happened? What was it?"

"Hull breach," Jefferson replied. "We were open to the elements. A couple of minutes and we'd have been inspecting that black hole at close quarters."

"That wasn't a quake. What caused that?"

As they all talked, her headache flourished to new heights and she could barely keep track of all the conversation. She vaguely remembered Rose helping her and Toby to their feet. As Toby gets his bearings again, Rose puts an arm around her. "Are you alright?"

What comes from Susan's mouth at first doesn't quite make sense. It's a jumble of languages; various Earthen, Alien, and Dead languages come together to make a load of nonsense. She winced, then nodded her head slowly. She focused on her words as she spoke, "I'll be fine. This isn't my first study-induced migraine."

She chuckled a little, then decided against it when another burst of pain flew through her head. For now, she would actively ignore how the migraine she had now was nothing like the little aches and pains she could get sometimes from studying for too long. There were other things to worry about. Scooti, for one, who - if she had heard correctly - hadn't been found yet.

Rose nodded, but it was clear she didn't entirely believe her. It didn't take a psychic to tell that (though it may have helped). Rose kept her arm around Susan while offering a bent arm to Toby. "Come on. Come and have some Protein One."

They linked arms and started walking down the corridor, walking at a slow pace to compensate for Susan, whose state Toby had only just noticed.

"Oh, you've gone native."

"Oi, don't knock it. It's nice. Protein One with just a-" She snapped her fingers softly, much to Susan's delight. "-dash of Three."

* * *

When they got to Habitation Three, Susan took the chance to sit down while everyone bustled around her, trying to find the missing Trainee Maintenance. Whatever was happening to her was psychic, she had figured that much out. It felt as if something were _shouting_ in her mind. Her carefully constructed mental blocks were being torn down bit by bit by something much more powerful than her and that was _terrifying_.

As she focused internally, she almost missed the revelation happening around her. _Almost_.

"I've found her."

Susan glanced up, trying to see the young girl, and followed everyone's gazes up to the window.

She wanted to vomit.

Floating there, in the vacuum of space, was the body of Scooti Manista.

"Oh, my God…" Rose gasped.

The man looked around to the rest of them. "Sorry. I'm so sorry."

As Jefferson reported her death to Zach, Susan stared out the window. She wanted to say she felt some deep, immense pain, but really… She felt _nothing_. Nothing but the ink bleeding another name onto the list of all she had lost. The only thing Susan could think was that Scooti was among some great names on that list.

"She was twenty… Twenty years old." Ida walked over to the controls and closed the shutters, blocking their view of the last of Scooti Manista, Trainee Maintenance.

"For how should Man die better than facing fearful odds?" Jefferson intoned. "For the ashes of his father… and the temples of his Gods."

Susan winced, but opened her mind briefly and hummed a funeral rite from Gallifrey. (What she failed to notice was the man - the Doctor - reacting briefly to it before deciding that it was simply his imagination.)

The room fell into a stifling silence. The crew members paused, listening to the nothingness.

"It's stopped," Ida said.

There was a crash in the distance, prompting Rose to ask, "What was that? What was it?"

"The drill," the man replied.

"We've stopped drilling. We've made it. Point Zero."

* * *

They were quick to prepare for the mission down. Susan tried to argue that she should be going down with Ida, but they _all_ could see that she was in no shape for it. Instead, they all found the other suit occupied by the new man.

"Reporting as a volunteer for the expeditionary force."

"This is breaking every single protocol. We don't even know who you are."

"Yeah, but you trust me, don't you? You can't let Ida go down there on her own and Ms. Campbell is in no condition to go down there. Go on… look me in the eye… yes you do, I can see it. Trust."

Zach sighed, looking defeated. "I should be going down, then."

The man sighed. "The Captain doesn't lead the mission. He stays here. In charge."

"Not much _good_ at it, am I?"

Although the man didn't respond, Susan but out a, "Bullshit," through the pain.

"Positions! We're going down in two. Everyone, positions!"

Zach began shouting commands to the crew as Susan curled up on herself. She could feel her headache lessening and dared to stand. She was wobbly, but it was enough to move forward to the rest of the group. Toby shot her a concerned glance, but she waved him off. They all stared at the screen as it indicated they reached Point Zero. She couldn't help the shiver that went up her spine.

There was talk between Rose and whoever was on the Comms, but she was too caught up in her head. While the headache was gone, she swore she could hear something telepathically. Not screaming, but… _whispers_.

"Oi, Toby, Susan, sounds like you've got plenty of work to do."

Susan responded just as Toby did, vague and distracted.

There was more talking around the room. Something about Basic 100, a trap door, and engravings. Susan wasn't paying that conversation, though. Instead, she was focused on the conversation she could hear in her head. Or, rather, _someone else's head_.

Whoever was receiving the conversation was clearly not a skilled psychic, as they were projecting it all over the place. She couldn't recognise the voices - they were too quiet - but she could just make out the words. It took a few times through (it was repeating, which really should have tipped her off from the beginning), but eventually, she could understand what it said.

Over the Comms, Zach asked, "Susan, Toby, did you get anywhere with decoding it?"

Toby didn't seem to hear, so Rose asked again, "Toby, they need to know, that lettering, does it make any sort of sense?"

She could hear his words before he said them, his thoughts still projecting from his spot in the corner as Susan's eyes widened. Instinctually, she spoke them aloud just as he did.

"I know what they say."

The scene, with the overlapping voices, was something out of a horror movie. Rose, however, didn't seem to notice the panic on Susan's face. "Then tell them."

It was Jefferson who noticed something off. "When did you work _that_ out?"

"It doesn't matter," Rose argued, "just tell them."

Susan lurched forward towards them, desperate to stop them, but Toby stood and turned, speaking the words that echoed in her head. She almost fell to the ground in agony from the feedback loop.

"These are the words of the Beast. And he had woken. He is the heart that beats in the darkness, he is the blood that will never cease. And now he will rise."

Jefferson turned his gun on the vessel. "Officer, stand down. Stand down."

"That's not Toby anymore, Jefferson," she offered, weakly. "He won't listen to you."

He just kept going, though. "Officer, as commander of security, I order you to stand down and be confined. Immediately!"

As Rose reported what was happening to her companion through the Comms, "Toby" looked over them all and smirked, his eyes landing on Jefferson. "Mr. Jefferson, tell me, sir… did your wife ever forgive you?"

"I don't know what you mean," Jefferson lied.

"Let me tell you a secret," the possessed boy grinned a wide grin. "She never did."

"Officer… You stand down and be confined."

"Or what?"

"Or under the jurisdiction of Condition Red, I am authorized to shoot you."

"But how many can you kill?"

His eyes lit up and something shrieked in Susan's ears. A black smoke curled off him, taking the odd symbols with him. This smoke flew towards the Ood, who Jefferson pointed his gun at. They began to speak in unison. "We are the Legion of the Beast."

The words echoed in her mind, making her wince and almost fall over, if it had not been for Rose.

"The Legion shall be many. And the Legion shall be few. He has woven himself in the fabric of your life since the dawn of time. Some may call him Abaddon. Some may call him Kroptor. Some may call him Satan. Or Lucifer. Or the Bringer of Despair. The Deathless Prince. The Bringer of Night. These are the words that shall set him free."

She could feel herself being pulled away as the Ood approached, but she was too occupied with the words being projected into her head and into the air.

"I shall become manifest. I shall walk in might. My legions shall swarm across the worlds. I am the sin and the temptation. And the desire. I am the pain and the loss and the dead will come. I have been imprisoned for eternity. But no more. The Pit is open. And I am free."

It laughed.


	2. Chapter 2

**Thank you all so much for the support you've given this story! I'm so sorry for how slow this update has been, life got in the way. I hope you're all doing alright in these weird times and I hope you enjoy!**

* * *

As the whispers subsided, Jefferson opened fire on the approaching Ood. Once they were all dead (to which she gently opened her walls long enough to let out a small hum before shutting them tightly again), Rose ran toward the comms device on the ground and started speaking into it.

"Doctor?" There was static. "Doctor, can you hear me? Doctor? Ida? Are you there?"

As Susan frowned at the odd lack of name and the familiar pang of loss, the door opened behind them and Danny ran through.

"It's me! But they're coming. It's the Ood. They've gone mad."

Susan shook her head. "They haven't gone mad, they're being manipulated by something. Something _powerful_."

"How many of them?"

"All of them!" Danny was frantic. "All fifty!"

Jefferson made his way towards the door. "Danny, out of the way." When Danny didn't move, he had to practically move him. "Out of the way!"

"But they're armed! They're da-" Jefferson ignored him and started to open the door. "It's the interface device. I don't know how, but they're using it as a weapon."

Susan frowned and bent down to the dead Ood near them. She picked up one of the interface devices and disconnected it from the corpse. Pulling a small sonic device from her back pocket, she flips open the panel on the interface sphere while Jefferson unloads on the incoming Ood.

She fiddled as Zach's voice came on the comms. "Jefferson, what's happening there?"

"I've got very little ammunition, sir. How about you?"

A moment of quiet movement, then, "All I've got is a bolt gun. With, uh… all of one bolt. I could take out a grand total of one Ood. Fat lot of good that is."

"Given the emergency, I recommend Strategy Nine."

She felt hope swell up, which came to blossom as Zach agreed.

"Right, we need to get everyone together. Rose? What about Ida and the Doctor? Any word?"

'_The Doctor?'_ She mouthed silently to herself. They couldn't possibly be talking about _the_ Doctor.

_Could they?_

She was about to ask when his voice came over the comms. "No! Sorry, I'm fine. Still here."

Rose was visibly relieved. "You could've said, you stupid b-"

The comms screeched, censoring her angry tirade.

"Whoa! Careful! Anyway, it's both of us, me and Ida. Hello! But the seal opened up. It's gone. All we've got left is this chasm."

"How deep is it?" Zach inquired.

"Can't tell. It looks like it goes on forever."

"'The Pit is open. I am free.'" Susan repeated the words that had come from the Ood, from the psychic energy in the very air, with a quiet, cautious voice.

"Yeah," Rose agreed. "That's what the voice said.

"But there's nothing?" Zach asked. "I mean… There's… nothing _coming out_?"

"No, no. No sign of 'the Beast'." Mockery was prevalent in his tone.

"It said 'Satan'," Rose said, looking frightened.

"Come on, Rose. Keep it together."

"Is there no such thing?" There was silence. "Doctor?" Again, nothing. "Doctor, tell me there's no such thing."

Susan walked over to Rose and put her hand in the girl's. "Every major religion has a boogie man. A _devil_. I don't know about you, but I've never actually seen hide nor hair of one, have you?" The girl shook her head. "If you ask me, this is just a big, psychic thing with a superiority complex."

The girl seemed to lighten a bit, but the atmosphere was certainly heavier in the room, especially once Zach gave the orders to come back.

"But, we've come all this way!"

"Okay, that was an order. Withdraw. With that thing open, the whole planet's shifted. One more inch and we all fall into the black hole. So this thing stops right now."

"But it's not much better up there with the Ood."

"I'm initiating Strategy Nine, so I need the two of you back up top immediately, no arguing-" There was static coming from Ida and the new man (who couldn't possibly be the Doctor). "Ida? _Ida?_"

There was a bit of panic before the comms came back and the man said, "Rose, we're coming back."

Rose smiled. "Best news I've heard all day."

To the side, Jefferson - who had been eyeing Toby all this time - released the safety on his gun and pointed it at the other anthropologist.

"What are you doing?" Rose asked, shocked.

Susan wanted to argue against Jefferson's actions, too, but at the same time… She knew how psychic possession worked.

"He's infected. He brought that thing on board. You saw it."

"Are you going to start shooting your own people, now? Is that what you're going to do? Is it?"

"If necessary."

"Qwll them, you'll have to shoot me '_if necessary_', so what's it gonna be?" Rose kneeled next to him, which put Susan on high alert. "Look at his face. Whatever it was, it's gone. It passed into the Ood. You saw it happen. He's clean."

Jefferson thinks for a moment, then puts his gun down. "Any sign of trouble, I'll shoot him."

As Jefferson moved away, Susan took his place closer to Rose and Toby. She eyed the boy with suspicion as she sealed her mental walls up tight.

Rose looked to the almost crying boy. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah… I…" He shook his head. "Dunno."

"Can you remember anything?"

"Just… it was so angry. It was… fury and rage… death…"

Susan frowned and looked up from her technological fiddling. That… That wasn't right. It may have preached anger and death and the sensations of rage and fury may have been there (not that she thought he would be able to feel those anyway what with his low psychic ability), but it was charismatic and calm. It truly was the Fallen Angel many of the stories tell of.

Toby was lying.

* * *

They all stood on the exploration deck, wracked in nervous energy (though some much more than others) and waiting for their two explorers to return.

"Okay, we're in. Bring us up."

Those on the deck grinned with anticipation for their missing allies. Jefferson nodded. "Ascension in… three… two… one."

As he said the final number, Susan heard the familiar sound of mechanisms failing just as the lights blinked out. They only stood in the darkness for a moment before a deep, gravelly voice proclaimed, "This is the Darkness. This is my domain."

The screen changed to show a collection of Ood, acting as a vessel of some sort for the thing's psychic energy. She could even hear a bit of echo through her own mind. Whatever this thing was - she _refused_ to call it what it claimed to be - it was certainly powerful.

"You little things that live in the light… clinging to your feeble Suns… which die in the-"

The comms crackled to life as Zach commented, "That's not the Ood. Something's talking through them."

Susan had to resist the urge to roll her eyes. As much as she loved humans, she forgot how long it took them to catch up to her Time Lord brain. She slowly edged towards the front of the group. She had an idea, but if it ended badly, she didn't want to risk others getting injured because of her. _She_ could take it, them not so much.

"Only the Darkness remains."

"This is Captain Zachary Cross Flane of Sanctuary Base Six representing the Torchwood archive. You will identify yourself."

"You know my name."

'_The dramatics of this thing!'_

"What do you want?" Zach pressed.

"You will die here. All of you. This planet is your gr-"

"Yeah, that's great and all," she took the final step to stand in front of her group and broke into the thing's monologue, "but could you please _shut up_?!"

"Susan," her comm flared to life with Zach's voice, "what are you _doing_? Are you _mental_?"

"So I've been told. Sorry, Captain, thought I'd give it the old college try myself." She could have sworn she heard him mutter something akin to "_Of course! How could I forget Susan's __**death wish**__?"_ and had to steel herself from laughing. She stared straight at the group of Ood as she spoke.

"No offense, of course. It's just that you're trying for this whole 'scary' act and it's just not that impressive. First of all, I'm hardly afraid of a _coward_ who speaks through others. Quite impressive psychic abilities, though. You've been giving me a migraine all day! But other than that, you're just manipulating low level psychic waves. _Not_ that impressive. I could do that as a _child_. This is _child's play_. _Literally_. If you were really who you claimed to be - which I doubt on _every_ level - you would be able to be _so_ much more impressive."

"And if you are the beast," the new man added from within the elevator, "then answer me this: which one? Hmm? 'Cos the universe has been busy since you've been gone. There's more religions than there are planets in the sky. The Archivits… Pordonity… Christianity…"

Seeing where he was going, Susan added on, "The Church, too! And the Faction Paradox… The Church of the Outsiders… Shinto… Sikhism… The Church of the Foundation!"

He seemed even more excited as he continued, "Pash-Pash, New Judaism… Sanclar… Church of the Tin Vagabond, which devil are you?"

"All of them."

"What, then you're the truth behind the myth?"

"This one knows me, as I know him. The killer of his own kind."

She had to frown at that. He looked human, then again, that didn't rule out plenty of races other than human. A title like that, though… she couldn't help but raise her guard.

"How did you end up on this rock?"

"The disciples of the Light rose up against me. And chained me in the pit for all eternity."

"When was this?"

"Before time."

"What does that mean? 'Before time?'" Susan asked, rejoining the conversation.

"Before time."

"But what does 'before time' _mean_?" The man asked.

"Before light and time and space and matter. Before the cataclysm. Before the universe was created."

"That's impossible. No life could have existed back then."

"Is that your religion?"

"It's a belief."

"There are theories out there," Susan offered. "Ideas of existence before creation. But they're just nonsense!"

"You know nothing. All of you. So small. The Captain, so scared of command." Although she couldn't see him, she could feel his anxiety at the description.

"The Soldier, haunted by the eyes of his wife." Jefferson's sorrow wafted off of him.

"The Scientist, still running from daddy." Ida's nerves were sensible even outside the base.

"The Little Boy who lied." Danny, too, grew uncomfortable.

"The Virgin." A low blow from such a great being, but she watched Toby inch closer to the edge.

"The Survivor, doomed to lose everyone she's ever loved while she festers on." The dig hurt, but she made no noticeable reaction. Unlike the others, this was hardly the first time that fact had been used against her by an entity that should have no right knowing such things.

"And the Lost Girl, so far away from home. The Valiant Child who will die in battle so very soon."

At Rose's questioning, "Doctor, what does it mean?" Susan couldn't help but frown. A break in the pattern. All the other titles were clear attacks against the people, but Rose's… She acted like she didn't know what it was referring to. It said it like it hadn't happened yet.

_Curious_…

"Rose, don't listen."

"What does it mean?"

Susan shifted back and placed a hand on Rose's shoulder - she looked so young, she couldn't be older than 20 - as the "Beast" snarled, "You will die… and I will live."

The screen flashed to show some sort of creature, horned and roaring, causing those she could see - and likely those she couldn't - to stumble back in shock and fear. She, however, having stared down a Dalek eyestalk, unblinking, was rather unimpressed.

Danny sounded horribly uncomfortable as he asked, "What the hell was that?"

Then, noise erupts. They're all talking at once. Toby and Rose - both the youngest of the group and those who had probably been through the biggest scare - were reasonably frightened and rambling on as best they could. Danny was looking to Jefferson for the next step, and Jefferson, the Captain. Even Ida was trying to get a read on the situation. But the burst of noise made it impossible for anyone to get anything. All the while, the new man was trying to be heard.

"Stop… Everyone just stop…"

With a sigh, Susan brought her comm to her face and let out a shrill whistle into it. She could hear a few cringes from those in the room with her, but it got everyone to shut up.

"You had something to say, Doctor…?"

The question was ignored, but he offered her a quiet thanks before continuing, "If you want voices in the dark, then listen to mine; that thing is playing on very basic fears. Darkness, childhood nightmares, all that stuff."

"But that's how the devil works," Danny shot back.

"Or a good psychologist."

"But…" Ida sounded nervous. "How did it know about my father?"

"This would be my cue, if you don't mind, Doctor." She spoke into the comm with an unnaturally cheerful tone, matching the new guy's. "This thing, _whatever_ it is, is psychic. And powerfully so. It wouldn't be that hard to take a peek into your head and see what frightens you, especially when you're already so worked up. Like the good doctor said: _Psychology_."

"Exactly! And what makes his version of the truth any better than mine? Hmm? Cos I'll tell you what I can see: humans. Brilliant humans. Humans who travel all the way across space. Flying in a tiny little rocket into the orbit of a black hole! Just for the sake of discovery, that's amazing! Do you hear me? Amazing. All of you. The captain, his officer, his elder, his genius, his friends. All with one advantage. The Beast is alone. We are not. If we can use that to fight against him…"

As Susan frowned at his use of humans in a way that implied he was something else - not that she could speak, but it was certainly interesting - there was a loud _bang_ as the cable snapped. Dust blew into the room with them as Rose cried frantically into the comm.

"Doctor! We lost the cable! Doctor, are you all right?" When she got no reply, she tried again. "Doctor?"

"Comms are down," Zach reported. "I've still got life signs, but… we've lost the capsule."

Rose continued to plead into the comm.

"There's no way out. ...they're stuck down there."

Other than Susan, they all went to the shaft and peered down it. She knew the math off the top of her head. They wouldn't be able to bring them back up. If they were lucky, it would be a quick death.

Then there was a pound at the door.

"Captain?" Jefferson asked into his comm. "Situation report."

"It's the Ood. They're cutting through the door bolts. They're breaking in."

"Yeah, it's the same on Door 25."

Rose, looking even more frantic, leaned over to Susan and asked, "How long's it gonna take?"

"Well, it's only a basic frame, so I'd say about 10 minutes." There was another sound. "On second thought, make that eight."

Zach added, "I've got a security frame, so it might last a bit longer. Still, that doesn't help you."

"Right. So we need to stop them, get out, or both."

"I'll take both," Danny quipped, "yeah? But how?"

"You heard the Doctor." That name was still throwing Susan for a loop. "Why do you think that thing cut him off? Cos he was making sense. He was telling you to think your way out of this. Come on! For a start, we need some lights. There's gotta be some sort of power somewhere."

"There's nothing I can do," Zach added, bitterly. "Some captain, stuck in here, pressing buttons."

"No offense, but it's clear you haven't been captain long, Zach. That's _kinda_ the whole point. The thing is, you need to press the _right_ buttons."

"Exactly!" Rose cheered, grinning at Susan, which she returned.

"They've gutted the generators!" He paused in thought. "But the rocket's got an independant supply. If I could reroute that… Mr. Jefferson? Open the bypass conduits. Override the safety…"

Jefferson went to work pressing buttons. "Opening bypass conduits, sir."

"Channeling rocket feed. In three… two… one… Power."

The lights powered on and Rose clapped. "There we go."

Danny's little "Let there be light!" made her chuckle slightly.

"What about that Strategy Nine thing?" Rose asked.

"Not enough power." Jefferson shook his head. "It needs a hundred percent."

"All right, we need a way out. Zach, Mr. Jefferson, you start working on that." She made her way towards Susan and Toby. "Susan, Toby, what about you?"

Susan frowned, her head tilted to the side while Toby stuttered out, "I'm not a soldier. I can't do anything."

"No, but you're archaeologists. What do you two know about the pit?"

Susan frowned. "Not a lot. We've barely started translating. The language is difficult as it is. We know it's old."

As Rose turned to move on, Toby spoke, "H-Hold on. Maybe…"

"What is it?"

"Since that thing was inside my head, it's like the letters made more sense."

"Well… get to work. Anything you can translate, just… anything." She moved on to Danny, but Susan had stopped paying attention. Toby apparently had lingering memories of the language from his psychic possession. It made… _some_ sense. It didn't mean he wasn't lying, but if he could help figure out the language, she might kiss him, possessed by some 'Beast' or no.

As they discussed linguistics quietly to themselves, the others worked frantically around them. Her newly altered Ood communication device weighed down her pocket. She would prefer to avoid using it for as long as she could - it could be incredibly useful when used, but it was a one hit wonder, and an untested one hit wonder at that -but she had a feeling that the time was growing nearer.

There was a bang at the door, sending sparks flying. The others grew frantic, though Toby - while faking it really well - stayed rather calm, just like her. The others talked about escaping through the maintenance tunnels while she and Toby discussed past participle.

They were corralled over, eventually, by Jefferson. Soon, they were all standing at the maintenance tunnel, ready to go. Well, all except Danny.

"Danny!" Rose shouted, beckoning him over.

"Hold on! Just conforming…"

"Dan, you've gotta go now," Jefferson commanded as another bang rang out. "Come on!"

The computer beeped and he pulled the chip out, racing over to them. "Put that in the monitor… and it's a bad time to be an Ood!"

"We're coming back. Have you got that? We;re coming back to this room and we're getting the Doctor out."

Jefferson seemed to ignore her as he started commanding the group, ever the soldier. "Okay, Danny, you go first, the Susan, then you Miss Tyler, then Toby, I'll go last in defense position. Now come on! Quick as you can!"

They all started into the tunnel in Jefferson's positions.

As they follow Zach's instructions, down the cramped tunnels, they tried their best not to focus on the fact that they were running for their lives down a path never meant for them to go through. They were defying fate and Susan had never felt more at home.

* * *

"I've got to oxygenate the next section. Now, keep calm… or it's gonna feel worse."

They were all very on edge as they waited for permission to move on, but it was made even worse by the loud noise on the other end of the tunnel.

"What was that?" Danny asked.

"Mr. Jefferson, what was that?" Rose asked, calling to the back of the group.

Toby sounded nervous, too. "What's that noise?"

Jefferson leaned into his comm, inquiring, "Captain… what was that?"

"The junction in Habitation Five's been opened, it must be the Ood. They're in the tunnels!"

"Well, open the gate!" Danny urged.

"I've gotta get the air in!"

"Just open it! ...sir."

Rose was trying to look over her shoulder. "Where are they? Are they close?"

"Don't know, I can't tell - I can't _see_ them… the computer doesn't register Ood as proper life forms."

Susan rolled her eyes. "Once again, Human prejudice dooms us all. That's just fucking _great_, isn't it?"

Danny, shaking, roared into his comm, "Enough about that. Just open the gate!"

When the gate opens, they all race through, Zach guiding them as they went. The Ood were approaching and fast. People were getting frantic. At one point, Jefferson stopped, sitting down on the ground. "I'll maintain defensive position!"

"You can't stop!" Rose cried.

"Miss Tyler, that's my job. You've got your task, now see to it."

Toby looked at Rose, adding, "You heard what he said, now shift."

Before they turned the corner, Susan pulled the sphere from her pocket and tossed it to Jefferson. At his confused expression, she elaborated, "I don't have the time to explain what that is, but just trust me. Press the button and throw it at the Ood. It should slow them down." She put a hand on his shoulder. "I'll be pissed if you don't make it back to us."

He offered her a salute. "I'll be back, Susan. You take care of them."

She gave one back before sprinting after the group.

"Eight point two. Open eight point two. Zach!"

"I've gotta aerate it!"

"Open it now!"

"I'm trying."

"Danny," Susan snapped from where she had taken position in the back, "I know you're scared, but for god's sake, chill the fuck out! Zach's doing his best and you're not helping by snapping at him."

That seemed to shut him up. As Zach demanded Jefferson move, she heard her device activate and the sound of footsteps. She grinned as she watched Jefferson turn the corner and make it back to them in time to make it through the gate. She grinned and clapped him on the back. "Welcome back, soldier!"

"Your thing was amazing! How did you do that?"

She shrugged as they kept running. "Oh, I just based it off of that weird electrical charge they had done. I realized that just as it could work internally, it could also expel. So, I worked a little magic to have it target Ood systems and sent a giant shockwave through their tech. They aren't dead, but they'll certainly need a bit of help getting back up."

Rose glanced back at her with a look of confusion and awe, but Zach's next direction reminded her of the circumstances and she continued on.

As nine point two opens, they watch as Ood file in, as if waiting for them.

"Lower nine point two." Rose looked terrified. "Zach, lower it!"

Danny was double timing it backwards. "Back! Back! Back!"

"We can't go back! The gang point's sealed off, we're stuck!"

Rose seemed to have the thought at the same time as Susan, who had been looking around for a possible weapon or escape. Rose pushed the grilling out of the way, yelling, "Come on!"

They crawled out, Toby somehow ending up at the end. Rose yelled down for him. "Come on! Toby, come on!"

Susan sighed, growling, "Toby, get your ass out of there!"

"Help me! Oh, my God, help me!"

She sighed and reached down, grabbing his arms and pulling him out. She turned just in time to see Ood approaching down the hall. She couldn't help but grin as they started running again. This is what she had missed since she had settled down. As adrenalin pimped through her veins, they raced towards the door to Ood habitation. They sped towards the main console in the room and Danny was quick to get the chip in and begin transmitting.

Susan winced as the signal went out. She was no Ood, but it was still rather annoying. The Ood around them clutch their heads and stumble, eventually all dropping to the ground.

It was silent, until Rose, grinning, shouted, "You did it! We did it!"

Danny, possibly even happier than Rose, laughed. "Yes!"

The small group of humans takes turns hugging, too busy in their excitement to notice that Susan had stepped away from the group to look at some of the Ood on the ground. Well, all except Jefferson, who saw the remorseful look on her face, gave her a nod, and turned back to the others.

Rose leaned into the comm. "Zach, we did it. The Ood are down. Now we've gotta find the Doctor."

"I'm on my way."

* * *

They made it back to the exploration deck and Zach gave her a small smile and a questioning look, motioning towards the computer. As Rose raced for the comm, Susan joined Zach at the computer and started helping him patch the comms back through the central desk to boost the signal.

"Doctor? Are you there? Doctor, Ida? Can you hear me? Are you there, Doctor?"

Finally, a familiar voice comes through. "He's gone."

"What do you mean, 'he's gone'?" Rose frowned.

"He fell. Into the pit. And I don't know how deep it is, miles and miles and miles."

Rose looked broken and her voice imitated that. "But… what do you mean 'he fell'?"

"I couldn't stop him," Ida replied, quietly. "He said your name…"

As Zach pulled the comm away from Rose, Susan put an arm around the young girl's shoulders and pulled her, trembling, into a tight embrace. "I'm sorry, Rose. I'm so sorry."

She began to shake with silent tears. Susan just rubbed her back - as her grandfather had done for her after she heard the news of Gallifrey's fate, her _family's_ fate - and hummed an old lullaby her mother used to sing to her as a child, a habit that her grandfather had picked up when she was inconsolable.

As she did, she listened in on Ida and Zach's conversation.

"No cable, no back-up… you're ten miles down…" He takes a shaky breath. "We can't get there."

"You should see this place, Zach. It's beautiful. Well, I wanted to discover things… And here I am." She sounded on the verge of tears.

"We've got to abandon the base. I'm declaring this mission unsafe. All we can do is make sure no one ever comes here again."

"But we'll never find out what it was?"

"I think that's for the best," Susan offered quietly over Rose's shoulder.

Zach nodded.

"Yeah."

"Officer Scott…"

"It's all right. Just go. Good luck."

"Thank you." As Zach went to start giving orders, Susan pulled away from Rose with a smile and picked up the comm.

"Ida?"

"Susan?" She sounded confused.

"Yeah, it's me. I just… I wanted to say that it was an honor to serve with you. And that I'm sorry."

"Why would you be sorry? You didn't do anything."

She gave a hollow chuckle. "That's exactly why I'm sorry." A pause. "Goodbye, Ida Scott."

"Goodbye…"

The comm is replaced just in time to watch Zach sedate Rose. She sighed, returning to the group with a clear, almost motherly, 'What is going on?' expression.

"I have lost too many people. I am not leaving you behind." He turned to the others. "Let's get her on board."

"We're leaving, then?" Susan inquired.

"Yeah. Don't tell me you're going to cause a fuss, too."

She laughed. "No, no… Just kinda… Just tired. I'll head to the rocket."

Zach nodded and went around making final preparations.

* * *

"Dislocating B-Clamp, C-Clamp, raising blue nitrates to maximum. Toby, how's the negapact feed line?"

"Clear! Ready to go, sir. For God's sakes, get us out of here!"

Susan heard a noise to the side, then Danny commented, "Captain… I think we're gonna have a problem passenger…"

The young Time Lord sighed and opened her eyes from her near meditative state. Normally, she wouldn't choose to enter such a state during a time like this, however, she had something she needed confirmed. And it was.

They were not alone.

With her eyes now open, they followed Toby closely. Sure enough, the closer they got to leaving, the less he seemed like Toby.

"Keep an eye on her."

"Wait… I'm not…"

"It's all right, Rose, you're safe."

She started tugging at her seatbelt, frantically. "I'm not going anywhere! Get me out of this thing! Get me out!"

"And… lift-off!"

It was then that Susan was reminded how much humans could surprise her. Rose grabbed the nearby bolt gun and pointed it at Zach. "Take me back to the planet."

Zach didn't look back at her or even respond. Susan in a quiet voice, pleaded, "Rose…"

"Take me back!"

"Or I'll shoot."

"The Doctor wouldn't want that," Susan insisted.

To be honest, she had no idea. However, she knew that _her_ Doctor - her grandfather - would never want that, so she sat and hoped that fate aligned to make the two men somewhat alike.

Rose met her eyes and held her ancient, _tired_ gaze for a few moments before lowering the gun and looking away. Jefferson dropped his gun, which had come up as soon as hers had.

"Sorry," Zach offered, "but it's too late anyway. Take a look outside. We can't turn back. This is what the Doctor would have wanted. Isn't that right?"

Rose glanced out of the window and watched as they sped away from the black hole. She redid her seatbelt as Toby laughed.

"What's the joke?" Danny snapped.

"Just… we made it. We escaped. We actually did it."

No one on the ship looked any happier.

"Not all of us," Rose said, grimly.

"We're not out of it yet," Zach added. "We're still the first people in history to fly away from a black hole. Toby, read me the stats."

Susan felt very unsettled by his smirk as he replied, "Gravity funnel holding, sir. Always holding. Stats at fifty three, funnel status at sixty six point five. Hull pressure constant. Smooth as we can, sir. All the way back home. Coordinates set for Planet Earth."

Susan fell back into a semi conscious state as Rose began to speak. "It doesn't make sense. We escaped, but there's a thousand ways it could've killed us. It could've… ripped out the air or… I dunno, burnt us, or anything, But it let us go. Why? Unless it wanted us to escape…"

"Hey, Rose," Toby commented, "do us a favor… Shut up."

"I think she has a point," Susan replied, eyes still closed. "Don't you, Toby?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

She couldn't help but smirk. "Of course you don't."

"Almost there," he continued, ignoring her. "We'll be beyond reach of the black hole in fourty… thirty nine…"

Then the rocket started to shake aggressively.

"What's happened? What was that?!" Danny was panicking.

'Toby', meanwhile, was snarling. "What's he doing? What is he doing?"

Susan couldn't help her laugh and additional, "Clever man!"

"We've lost the funnel! Gravity collapse!"

"What does that mean?" Rose asked.

"We can't escape. We're headed straight for the black hole."

The rocket spun and started towards the black hole at alarming speeds.

Rose stared out the window. "It's the planet. The planet's moving. It's falling."

Susan opened her eyes to watch Toby start reeling, his eyes glowing red once more and symbols covering his skin. She grinned. "Welcome back, old pal."

"I am the rage… I am the Prince and the Fall and the Darkness…"

As the others debated what to do, she glanced back at Jefferson, who shared a glance with her and shot 'Toby' dead blank. He slumped back into his seat. Susan put a hand on the corpse's shoulder, and watched as the others calmed down slightly. Her mind open, offering a telepathic liturgy for the poor boy, she didn't pay attention to the other's panic over the black hole.

But then they stopped falling. Then they were turning. Susan's private funeral stopped, eyebrows furrowed. This was impossible, and that was coming from a Time Lord. There was only thing that could stand up to a black hole like this and it was-

She turned Rose, frantic, eyes wide. "That Doctor of yours. What was his name?"

She looked confused. "Just… just the Doctor. Why?"

Susan ignored her question as shocked laughter bubbled up from within her. It really was him. He looked so young, even younger than his eighth regeneration. But of _course_ it was him. When else would she meet a being that claimed to be the Devil unless _he_ was around. He was never known for his good luck.

The the comm burst to life and the cheerful voice of the Doctor called, "Sorry about the hijack, Captain. This is the good ship TARDIS. Now, first thing's first, have you got a Rose Tyler on board?"

"I'm here! It's me! Oh, my god!" She looked alive in a way Susan had never seen before, even when he had been there. "Where are you?"

"I'm just towing you home. Gravity-schmavity. My people practically invented black holes. Well, in fact, they did. In a couple of minutes, we'll be nice and safe. Oh, and captain, can we do a swap? Say, if you give me Rose Tyler, I'll give you Ida Scott? How about that?"

"She's alive!" Zach cheered.

Danny cried, :Yes! Thank god."

"Yeah! Bit of oxygen starvation, but she should be all right. I couldn't save the Ood. I only had time for one trip. They went down with the planet." There was the sound of a computer. "Ah! Entering clear space, end of the line, mission closed."

* * *

Susan moved over to stand with Zach as they prepared for the trade. He glanced up at her with a smile.

"Are you all right after all of that?" He asked.

She nodded. "Yeah, I just… I've been thinking."

"Bout what?"

"I… I might be parting ways with you guys."

"What?" He furrowed his brows. "Why?"

"You know my granddad who I told you about?" He nodded. "That guy back there, the Doctor… That's _him_."

"How…?"

"It's complicated. I don't think you'd understand even if I explained it."

He nodded, accepting it. Zach was always really good at that, accepting her weird comments and the like. He asked, "Then why didn't he recognize you?"

At her face, he sighed, answering himself with, "Let me guess, it's 'complicated'?"

"Yeah…" She rubbed the back of her neck as she bounced on the balls of her feet. This regeneration was much more prone to nervous energy, and she was nothing right now if not nervous. "I have no idea if he'll take me, or even believe me, but I have to try, y'know?"

He nodded. "If anyone deserves to be with their family, it's you, Susan Campbell."

She gave him a salute. "So long, Captain Zachary Cross Flane."

He gave her one back as she moved over towards where Rose had flown into the TARDIS as soon as it landed. She had gone to knock on the door, only to find the door swinging open. She watched as the Doctor lifted Rose up into his arms, clearly both happy to be reunited. She cleared her throat and knocked on the door frame. "Knock knock."

They glanced back, looking like children who had been caught doing something they shouldn't have. The Doctor pulled himself forward with a customer service smile. "Yes? Susan, was it?"

"Yeah… Yeah, Susan." She stepped forward into the TARDIS and couldn't help the quiet gasp that escaped her. It, of course, was the same TARDIS. It _felt_ like the same TARDIS, but _god_ was it different than last time she saw it. It had much more personality than the standard white it had been when she traveled in the ship.

The Doctor smirked, a knowing gleam in his eyes. "Go ahead, you can say it."

Her voice came out so quietly, it was barely audible to the human ears in the room. "_She's changed so much…_"

He stared at her. Whatever he had expected her to say, that wasn't it. "What was your name again?"

She gave him a smile. "Susan. Susan Campbell. But… You might remember me better as Susan _Foreman_."

Rose watched, confusion bleeding onto her face, as the Doctor walked slowly towards Susan, shock the only expression visible to the human. To the younger Time Lord, however, she could see so much more. It was a different face, yes, but it was still the same if you looked at it right. It was still her grandfather's face. She could see the pain and sorrow, she could see the disbelief, and she could see the _love_ rolling off of him in waves.

"Susan…" His voice was soft and cracking. "It's really you…?"

"No," she joked, laughing softly, "It's a _Dalek_. Of _course_ it's me."

"What are you doing here?"

She shrugged. "Exploring, I suppose."

"But- But why? What about your family? What about David? And Alex? Barbara and Ian and David Jr?"

Her expression darkened. "Have you really forgotten? How long has it been for you?" It seemed to be a rhetorical question, because she continued. "David and Alex are dead. And Barbara and Ian and DJ were human. So, _completely_ human… They're dead now…"

"Oh, Susan…"

She pulled away from the gentle arms around her. "It's fine… Really, it is. I've come to terms with it."

"Uhm," Rose spoke up for the first time since Susan came into the TARDIS, "I'm sorry to interrupt, but can someone tell me what's going on?"

"Right!" The Doctor pulled back and went to stand between Susan and Rose. He motioned towards Susan. "Rose, meet Susan… My _granddaughter_."

Susan waved to Rose. "Nice to be _properly_ introduced."

Rose frowned. "But if you knew it was him, why didn't you-"

"Say anything?" She finished with a laugh. "Well, to be honest, I didn't realize it was him. Time Lord regenerations and all. I might have been able to tell it was him, but with that thing yelling in my head and far too long without any practice, I wasn't gonna be able to."

The Doctor smiled. "And Susan, this is my companion, Rose Tyler."

"That's right, you've been taking companions. Quite the development from Mr. 'I'm not taking Humans in the TARDIS', eh?"

He flushed. "_That_ was a long time ago."

She laughed, which Rose joined this time.

The Doctor, clearly done with being picked on, went over to the TARDIS console and started speaking through the comm. "Zach? We'll be off, now. Have a good trip home." Rose stepped up beside him at the console. "And the next time you get curious about something… oh… what's the point? You'll just go blundering in. The human race…"

Susan laughed and joined them, standing on the other side of the Doctor. "But that's what we love about them, right? Their unprecedented and _unstoppable_ curiosity."

"Doctor," Ida asked, "what did you find down there That creature, what was it?"

"I don't know!" He responded, waving the question off. "Never did decipher that writing. But that's good! Day I know everything? Might as well stop."

"What do you think it was?" Rose asked, away from the comm. "Really?"

"I think… we beat it. That's good enough for me."

Rose grew uneasy. "It said I was gonna die in battle."

"Then it lied," the Doctor replied, quietly and confidently.

Rose smiled and that was all the Doctor needed to turn back to the comm. "Right, onwards, upwards, Ida, see you again, maybe!"

"I hope so."

"And thanks, boys!" Rose offered.

"Yes, thank you for keeping an eye on Rose and thank you for keeping an eye on Susan for so long."

Susan grinned, elbowing the older Time Lord before taking the comm. "Thank you guys. I'll miss you all so much. Have the best lives you can!"

"Hang on though," Ida interrupted. "Doctor. You never really said… you two… you _three_… who are you?"

"Oh," he glanced at the two of them. "The stuff of legend."

He pulled a lever and the TARDIS began her flight into the unknown. Susan grinned.

"Next stop: anywhere."


End file.
